Israel's War Against Palestinian Terror

Israel's War Against Palestinian Terror - http://www.oslo-war.com is well-designed, with good information.

"ILAN RAMON - IN MEMORIAM"

HonestReporting Communique 02 February 2003

* * *

HonestReporting joins the people of Israel in mourning the tragic loss of Col. Ilan Ramon and his Columbia Shuttle crewmates.

We wish to share the following inspirational tribute, "Shattered Dreams," by Dina Coopersmith of http://aish.com/.

HonestReporting.com


====== ILAN RAMON: SHATTERED DREAMS ======

The mind reels in disbelief as reports come in about the explosion of the Columbia space shuttle.

We in Israel have become accustomed to announcements of terror attacks. We have even attuned ourselves to hearing the nuances of seriousness in the voice of the radio announcer as he or she introduces the hourly news so that we can steel ourselves against receiving the inevitable tragic information. Particularly on Saturday night, after spending an entire Shabbat disconnected from the outside world, the first moment of the post-Shabbat news is fraught with a special kind of tension.

But nothing prepared us for this.

It was just not possible.

After 16 days of almost constant news coverage about Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut, we all felt we knew him. He was family. He represented us all -- our country, our people, our past and our future. He was our hero at a time when we sorely needed one.

The son of Holocaust survivors, he expressed all that was characteristic of the proud Israeli Jew. As a pilot in the Israeli air force, he was a war hero who bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, as well as fighting in the Yom Kippur and Lebanon Wars. Although not religious, Ilan felt compelled to keep some significant religious observances in space to fulfill his dream of uniting the Jewish people and representing our nation. He took a book of Psalms and a picture drawn by a 14-year-old Jewish boy who was killed in Auschwitz; he ate only kosher food and made Kiddush Friday night and recited Shema Yisrael as the shuttle flew over Jerusalem.

He said he wanted to "emphasize the unity of the people of Israel and the Jewish communities abroad."

Among my friends, we spoke about him creating a Kiddush Hashem -- sanctification of God's name.

How could he be gone?

How could all our hopes and dreams disintegrate into the thin layer of atmosphere that protects the earth?

We anxiously awaited his landing, to celebrate the triumph of our new national hero. The possibility of mishap was very far from our minds.

"It's much more dangerous to drive in a car in this country that to travel in space," Ilan's brother, Gadi, said of his attitude. "Not in our wildest dreams did we imagine that there would be any problem."

Ilan's father said early Saturday morning, as he eagerly anticipated the imminent arrival of his son, "The only problem might be in the weather, and that might only delay the landing by a day or two."

The tragedy brought home to us once again the fragility of human endeavor. We are shocked when the frontiers of science and technology, in which we place our unflagging trust, reveal themselves to be so shaky and limited.

Colonel Ramon took great delight in taking a "surprise" with him to space -- a Torah scroll that survived the hell of the Holocaust. The scroll symbolized for him his dream of a unified people under God, with an indomitable spirit.

That Torah scroll exploded along with Ramon and his fellow astronauts at an altitude of 200,000 feet over a Texas town called Palestine (did I hear that correctly?).

The Midrash tells us that "the Jewish nation will not be redeemed until they are one unit." Ilan Ramon was a devoted husband, father, pilot, and scientist. But his greatest legacy is that he brought healing to a wounded nation.

Our hearts and prayers are with Ilan Ramon's parents and his wife, Rona, and their four children. Our nation mourns with you. Unfortunately, it is in grief that we have fulfilled Ilan's dream of unity.

Ilan commented this past Thursday on what the world looked like to him in space. "The world looks marvelous from up here, so peaceful, so wonderful and so fragile."

Now we can turn that comment eerily around and say to Ilan, "You looked so marvelous from down here, so peaceful, so wonderful... and so fragile."


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MY TRUE HERO

By Solly Ganor
solganor@netvision.net.il

I don’t think there was a person in Israel who didn't watch the Shuttle Columbia blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, yesterday.

We watched with trepidation and anxiety, but above all pride as the graceful white shuttle lifted off into the blue Florida sky, trailing a white plume behind it. For us Israelis, it was a special flight, because our own astronaut, colonel Ilan Ramon was among the crew, the first Israeli to enter space.

For a short while we allowed ourselves to forget our problems, our differences, even the coming elections, and were united in hailing colonel Illan Ramon as our hero.

But for me, there was another hero: someone that was hardly mentioned in the Israeli media. If it weren’t for an American TV station, which briefly stated that colonel Illan Ramon’s mother was an Auschwitz survivor, I too would have been ignorant of the fact.

To most us the fact that his mother was a Holocaust survivor from Auschwitz, would be baffling why I would call her a hero.

I will tell you why.

After the collapse of Hitler’s Reich and our liberation in the beginning of May, 1945, I served in the US army as an interpreter. I was fortunate enough to have learned English during the war, a language that very few survivors spoke.

I served in a unit that was attached to the CIC, (Army Intelligence). We were eleven men, all of them, beside myself, American service men, who knew a second language besides their native English. Our Job was to find Nazis hiding among the displaced persons in the DP camps.

However, we also visited camps were only Jews lived, such as Feldafing, Fherenwald and more. For a while I was the interpreter for a colonel Woodhouse, who for some reason was attached to our unit. Colonel Woodhouse was an English psychiatrist who was sent to evaluate the mental state of the Jewish concentration camp survivors.

I will never forget his official evaluation. He didn’t keep it a secret and I was able to read it. “I came to the conclusion that the trauma caused to Jewish inmates of concentration camps was unprecedented in its severity and that they would never be able to live normal lives, get married and have children. “ I have known patients who were subjected to trauma that weren’t even a fraction of the trauma the Jews were subjected to and they were psychologically disabled for life. Therefore, I see no hope for them.”

Well, colonel Woodhouse, allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Ramon, a Auschwitz survivor, who not only got married and brought children to this world, but brought up a son that anyone in the world would be proud of to call as his own, despite your prognosis.

Perhaps, from the medical point of few he was right, but he didn’t count on the spirit of the survivors. When we were liberated we were almost naked, bereft of all possessions, clad in a prisoner’s striped uniform and wooden clogs. We owned nothing, not even underwear, socks or a handkerchief. We were like walking skeletons, all skin and bones. My schooling was interrupted when I was twelve, and I was subjected to brutalities that mankind has never known. I was liberated from the Nazis, but what next? So I stood before a world, I considered hostile, age seventeen, and I had to make my way through it. And yet I did it and I did it well.

I don’t know Mrs. Ramon, but today when I watched her son taking off into space, I am sure that she did more than well. Therefore, Mrs. Ramon, I salute you. You too are my hero.

Solly Ganor,
Herzelia Pituach, Israel

THIS PURIM -- SHOW YOU CARE

Just for a moment, picture a young Israel soldier in an isolated outpost far from family and home. It's Purim, and he's serving under extremely trying conditions. Then, out of the blue, he's handed a traditional Purim basket -- mishloach manot-- filled with goodies. Follow this link to send a Purim basket to an IDF soldier.

A story of cold-blooded murder

By Joseph Farah
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Last week, Massoud Mahlouf Elon, a 72-year-old Israeli from the town of Menahemya, did something he had done for years.


He drove into the Jordan Valley, a desolate Arab area where he often brought clothes to donate to poor Bedouin tribes people.

"I begged him not to travel there," said his son Ya'acov.

But Elon enjoyed friendly relations with the local people. They knew him. He knew them. Despite rising tensions between Jews and Arabs, Elon believed his own personal relationships built up over many years would overshadow the dangers just any Israeli might face in the area.

Elon was wrong.

After a 12-hour search of the Jordan Valley using jeeps, helicopters and dogs, Israeli security forces discovered first his charred automobile and later his mutilated and incinerated remains last Thursday. He is believed to have been stoned to death. His face had been bashed beyond recognition.

The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, an Arab terrorist group under the command of Yasser Arafat, immediately began circulating leaflets taking responsibility for the murder.

I have written tens of thousands of words over the years about the Arab-Israeli conflict. I have tried to find new ways of looking at old facts. I have tried to shed light on the mysteries of this ancient blood feud. I have tried to explain the geo-political context of this explosive struggle. I have delved into the spiritual issues. I have reported facts I felt certain would change people's perceptions. I have attempted to shatter myths and misconceptions.

Sometimes, however, the simplest, most direct and most effective way to reach people with the truth is through the personal story.

Massoud Mahlouf Elon's story.

I didn't know Elon. But I feel like I did after reading about him. I've met many men like him in the Middle East, nice men who got along with their neighbors, nice men who would give you the shirt off their back, nice men who didn't care about politics and power.

This man was no threat to anyone. He took no sides in any conflict. He was a Jew who simply loved and cared for his neighbors, his Arab neighbors. And he paid for that love with his life in the cruelest imaginable way.

In the past, I have made the case that Yasser Arafat should be tried, convicted and executed for the murders of high-profile U.S. diplomats. I have made the case that Arafat should pay with his own life for the murders of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Jews. I have made the case that he should be held accountable for the murder of dozens of America citizens.

But today, I suggest we put all that aside for the moment and simply arrest Yasser Arafat for the murder of Massoud Mahlouf Elon, the 72-year-old Jew with failing eyesight who wanted only to help his Arab neighbors.

I don't care how such an action might inflame his cohorts. I don't care how such an action might impact the "peace process." I don't care how Washington might react to such a move. I don't care.

It's time for justice. It's time to do the right thing.

What good will it do for Israel to lash out and attack some mid-level terrorist in Arafat's chain of command? What good will it do to steamroll over some terrorists' houses? What good will it do to blame anyone else but the mastermind of this cold-blooded murder as well as 40 years of similar atrocities?

Arafat did this. He claims responsibility for the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades. This group is an offshoot of his own Fatah Party. Now let him be responsible for their actions.

Arafat needs to pay for Massoud Mahlouf Elon.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated column originates at WorldNetDaily, where he serves as editor and chief executive officer. If you would like to see the column in your local newspaper, contact your local editor. Tell your paper the column is available through Creators Syndicate.

KADDISH FOR ZELIG

Dear Friends,

When I sent out Holocaust survivor and author Solly Ganor's "Conversation on the Beach," had no idea who the author was--man, woman, background, age--nothing. Only now, having read Mr. Ganor's "Kaddish for Zelig," do I understand the full, incredible impact of that conversation between Mr. Ganor and the arrogant Muslim student on an Israeli beach. Read the following article, and then re-read "Conversation on the Beach." Do this, and I promise you that you will finally understand the whole truth about the people of Israel, and the Jewish State. It will put into perspective the media lies, Muslim propaganda, and the Jewish Left's sickeningly wrong perspective. It's long, but you will never have to read another word on this subject again.

I promise you. I promise you.

With every blessing,
Naomi Ragen
http://www.naomiragen.com


KADDISH FOR ZELIG

by Solly Ganor
solganor@netvision.net.il
Holocaust survivor
Israel, June 12, 2002

If I needed a reminder why we live in Israel and cling to it with heart and soul, despite the endless wars and the suicide bombings, this recent journey supplied us with the answer. The flight from Tel Aviv to Munich lasts less than four hours, but my memory takes me back fifty seven years, when I was a teenage slave laborer for the Nazis in one of the outer camps of Dachau. Towards the end of the war, they were so desperately in need of labor that the Nazis reluctantly gave up the idea of gassing all Jews, irrespective of their gender or age.

They continued to gas women with children and old people, but those whom they considered still capable of work, were temporarily spared. They even coined a phrase for those of us: "Vernichtung durch Arbeit"--"Annihilation through Work" In fact, they starved us and made us work twelve hours a day at hard labor, condemning us to a slow agonizing death.

There were in all eleven outer camps of Dachau, where in nine months fifteen thousand Jewish slaves out of a total of thirty thousand, died of starvation, hard labor and beatings by the German supervisors and the SS guards. I was in an outer camp of Dachau, known as Lager X, by Utting, a picturesque little town by the Amersee. Before the war writers and artists used to live there. I was told that the famous Kurt Weil lived there before Hitler came to power.

In July 1944, with the Soviet troops approaching Kaunas ghetto where I was incarcerated for three years, the Nazis transported us half across Europe to Bavaria. There, near the medieval town of Landsberg and surroundings, Hitler decided in the last phases of the war to build gigantic underground factories where the jet fighter Messerschmit M62 was to be built. This was Hitler's promised secret weapon that would sweep the American and British planes out of the German skies.

We, the half starved Jews of Lithuania, Poland, and Hungary were to build these gigantic factories, and perish while building it.

The construction sight was called Moll, named after the owner of the building company, Leonard Moll. I will never forget the day when I first laid eyes on it. We were driving from Utting in a truck, to deliver a load of potatoes . In our camp it was known that the Germans were building some kind of underground factory, and we heard terrible stories about it. We traveled for what seemed like an hour along a tree-lined dirt road. Darkness had fallen, and in the distance we could hear the low grinding roar of heavy machinery. The din increased just before we emerged into a huge clearing lit by the glare of floodlights. The road dropped into a vast excavation, and from it rose an enormous concrete vault, bristling with vertical reinforcing rods so that it looked like some monstrous hedgehog. Narrow railroad tracks curved towards the opening.

The installation was a half-cylinder of concrete, 1,300 feet long and spanning more than 275 feet at the base. It rose some 95 feet into the air at the top of the arch. Under the glaring lights, cranes and bulldozers moved into and around its mouth. Scores of tractors, trucks, and other heavy equipment created an ear-shattering roar. Along the sides, scores of prisoners stood on platforms handling huge flexible hoses that spewed wet cement into the spiked grid work, while others moved about with shovels and buckets. Everywhere we looked we saw what looked like thousands of men in striped uniforms moving about the compound, carrying lumber, iron rods and sacks of cement.

It was like an enormous, evil hive. Even as we watched we heard inhuman screams coming from above. The men who were maneuvering the huge hose had lost their grip, and the pipe began writhing about, spewing concrete in all directions. The men desperately tried to seize it, but it whipped and flailed and knocked several men off their feet. One after another they fell screaming onto the spikes, while the hose poured hundreds of pounds of concrete on top of them. The scene I described took place towards the end of 1944.

The men I saw fall into the concrete are still entombed in its massive construction to this day. Among the men who slaved on this project was my childhood friends Uri Chanoch and Chaim Konwitz, Avraham Fein, Monchik Levin, and many others. Fifty-eight years later we had returned to "Moll" to say Kadish for these men.

One of the man entombed I knew personally. His name was Zelig. I never found out his last name, but I knew he was from a small town in Lithuania. He was one of the "human horses" who were engaged in pulling a food cart from the village of Utting to a German worker's kitchen. I too was a horse, and in all we were four teenagers who were given that job.

The German kitchen was near the site where we were slaving at hard labor, a place known as Dyckerhof and Wydman. (Dyckerhof and Wydman, by the way, is one of the largest construction companies in Germany today.) At that stage of the war, gasoline became a very precious commodity, and we the Jewish slaves, were used as 'horses'. Make no mistake, being a "horse" was a coveted job in the camp, the alternative was to carry hundred pounds of cement on your back, or iron rails to build tracks for the trolleys. There was another advantage in being a "horse" the cart we were pulling was filled with food for the kitchen, and we always managed to scrounge a crust of bread or a bowl of soup in Utting.

Zelig was an ardent Zionist and always talked about how he would work the land of Israel if he ever survived the war. "If I will ever survive this hell and get to the land of Israel, I will kiss every grain of sand, and work twenty four hour a day to build it up," he would say, and he would say it with so much longing in his voice that it had an effect on all of us.

But his wish never came true. He fell into the roof of "Moll" and became entombed with the others, by sheer mistake, and I was there to see him fall. I will never forget his screams as he fell to his horrible death. Fifty-eight years later we stood quietly reciting kadish for the dead and I spoke to Zelig of the land of Israel that he loved so much, and like Moses, never got to see it.

Yes, Zelig, I want to tell you of the true miracle of Israel, that puts to shame the miracles of the Bible. Yes, Zelig, I survived and saw your beloved land. I still remember the mountains of Carmel rising from the morning mist, as our ship approached Haifa.

We were a ship full of penniless Holocaust survivors, and we all sang (what was later to become our National Anthem) the Hatikvah (the Hope) with tears in our eyes. No sooner had we landed on its shore, as we were called to defend the newly proclaimed land of Israel. Five Arab armies descended on us trying to strangle us at our birth.

I will never forget the moment when I was given a rifle and was told by my commanding officer: "This is your land now, defend it with all you have got, for you will never have another chance to have your own country."

And defend it we did, Zelig. Many of us died, some of them the last sons of once glorious Jewish families of Europe, but they died for the only cause worth while fighting for. I was only sorry, Zelig, that you couldn't be there by my side fighting for the land you loved so much. With the onslaught of the combined Arab armies, the world gave us a week to survive and what is more, no one lifted a finger to help us. The Arabs were to finish what Hitler had started.

So what else is new? But the world didn't reckon with one small thing, Zelig.. We were not the defenseless Jews anymore. We were now back in our homeland fighting for the resurrected State of Israel. Against all odds we won the war, and set out to prepare the ground for another million penniless refugees. Jews, who escaped with their lives from the Arabic countries, where they were robbed of their properties, possessions and money.

And soon another million arrived from all over the world, and another million, from Poland and the Baltics. From six hundred thousands in 1948, we grew into a population of two and half million within a few years of the creation of the State. Ironically, when the Jewish Agency asked for sevent-five thousands certificates to save some Jews from Hitler's gas chambers, the British claimed that the country couldn't absorb such a vast number of Jews. That was the infamous White Paper.

The fledgling state soon ran out of money to buy the basic needs for the swelling population. We lived in tents and ate what the small agricultural settlements could provide us with. It wasn't enough, but we weren't starving.

Very soon we began to build a healthy democratic society, creating wealth by our brains and hard work, as the country had no natural resources. Soon Jews from over fifty countries full of enthusiasm came to help build the State of Israel. Our population grew even more, and despite the predictions of international experts, that no country can absorb so many millions without an economical collapse, Israel continued to develop in every field. The Jews, who hadn't tilled the land for two thousands years became experts in agriculture, achieving internationally unprecedented results.

Ironically, the stereotyped Jew, the merchant, the money lender, the usurer, went all over the world to teach agriculture and know-how in many fields, and what is even more ironic, we became experts in warfare. "The people of the book," as we were known for two thousand years, soft and cowardly, as proclaimed by the anti-Semites, soon learned to become experts in that field as well. The fact is, that in 1967, we stunned the world by defeating the combined Arab armies in six days.

The Arab countries, unwilling to accept their defeat in the battlefield, and unwilling to accept us in their midst, launched war after war, trying to eliminate the State of Israel. Every time they suffered crushing defeats, despite their superior numbers and new-technology weapons the Soviets supplied them with.

Today we are a modern society of six million people. The country that once was a mosquito-infested swamp land, or dry desert land, blossomed into a modern society of six million people. From nothing we created a land that not only boasts of the highest standards in every field of achievement, but also developed one of the highest high-tech industries in the world. We export per capita in dollars more than any other country in the world. And we did it all with hard work, brains, and guts.

Yes, Zelig, I always admired you for you love of that distant land called Eretz Israel. I never believed that I could have such emotions for any land. Today, after having fought for it in four bloody wars, and after spending a life time in helping rebuild it, I can finally say that I do share your feelings for the land of Israel. Yes, Zelig, you can be proud of us. We, the survivors of the Holocaust, have risen from the ashes of Europe and helped create the miracle of Israel. Never again will they line us up defenseless before the gas chambers of Europe!

Rest in peace, my friend Zelig, rest in peace.

Herzelia, Israel
June 12, 2002


A Letter from Solly Ganor

Dear Harry,

I thought that I would interest you in an article I wrote after I was invited to Germany by the German government. My book, 'Light One Candle,' was translated into German and was recently introduced to the German High Schools as a study book for the subject on the Holocaust. Therefore I am frequently invited to Germany to give lectures on the Holocaust in German High, universities and even the army and air force.

You can imagine that it is not an easy matter for me to do that, especially the lectures in the German army. Standing before 450 German officers and lecturing them on what their grand parents did to us, is almost a surrealistic scene for me. The uniforms are pretty much the same as they were under the Nazis, and the faces haven't changed much, yet they are different from their grand parents.

One general told me that one of my lectures are worth more than a 1000 hours of learning history. I guess this is what keeps me coming back to Germany.

And the ironic fact that the Germany is almost the only country in Europe that is supporting Israel within the European Union. We desperately need allies there, even if they are Germans. Recently I visited the site by Landsberg, where we were used as forced labor. A friend of mine by the name of Zelig is entombed in the twelve-foot-thick roof that we built during the war. The bunker was meant to be a factory for the German jet fighter Me-62, the first jet to be employed during the war.

Visiting the place brought back bitter memories, one of them, the entombing of Zelig. I call the article 'Kadish for Zelig,' and so far only sent it to some friends. If you think that it would be of interest to put it on your Web site, please do. I think all Jews should read such personal accounts of what happened to us during the Holocaust.

Thanks and Shalom,
Solly

THE ROAD TO PERDITION - Is Israel being sold out?

Ruth Matar, Women in Green Radio Program
Arutz Sheva, January 1, 2003

In the Hagadda, the story which Jews read on Passover, it is written:

"For not one only has risen up against us, but in every generation some have risen to annihilate us, but the Most Holy, blessed be He, has delivered us out of their hands."

In the last century, the Nazis thought they were going to succeed in what they planned as the Final Solution of the Jewish Problem, the complete extermination of the Jewish People. In this new century, our enemies, the Russian Federation, the United Nations, the European Union, and the US State Department have conceived of a plan, which will finally put an end to the dangerous ideas of those pesky Jews, to return once again to the land which they keep insisting some deity promised them long ago. Not only that, but these Jews actually have the audacity to build their homes in Judea, Samaria and Gaza where, they claim, remnants of synagogues thousands of years old are proof positive that this is their land.

Okay, the nations of the world say, that was then, now is now. Therefore, these nations of the world have come up with a "Road Map to Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict".

* Natan Sharanski calls this plan "a Road Map that leads straight back to Oslo".

* The Jerusalem Post, in an editorial of October 24, 2002, calls it a "Road Map to misery".

* Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post columnist, calls it a "Roadway to perdition".

I, personally, think that Israel is being sold out! The Russians, the United Nations, the European Union and the US State Department are effectively ganging up against Israel. All the signs are there. Last year, a French Ambassador to England described Israel as feces. A Saudi newspaper—controlled, of course, by the Saudi government--wrote that Jews make holiday pastry with human blood. Tony Blair, supposedly America's main partner in the war against terror, invites the mass murderer Assad of Syria to 10 Downing Street for a cozy chat about Israel, the only obstacle to peace in the Middle East. The British Queen invites this murderer Assad for tea and crumpets in her palace. And the head of the US State Department, Secretary of State Colin Powell, makes a remark which reveals his admiration of Yasser Arafat: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."

Yes, the signs are all there. As A. M. Rosenthal, formerly one of the editors of the New York Times, said in an article in the New York Daily News on April 5, 2002, entitled "Ignore Hate Today, Die Tomorrow", that Jews and Christians have been deceiving themselves that the most violent and virulent anti-Semitism campaign since Hitler has involved only Muslim states. "The noise and stench of hatred are soiling us again, not just from Muslim countries, but from lands we consider our friends."

Rosenthal further says: "Jews, listen and you will hear the sound of breaking glass."

Lately, I have been hearing the sound of breaking glass again. I was a small child at the time of Krystall Nacht in Austria in November of 1938, 64 years ago. No, the Nazis didn't break the glass of the windows of our home. They knew that would be pointless, since our home was to be given in good condition to one of the party faithful. They did, however, break all the windows of our synagogue, where they had herded all the town's Jews. I remember two things very clearly, being terribly cold and so, so hungry. The cold November winds blowing through the broken windows chilled us to the bones as we huddled together on the stone floor. In addition, we were very hungry. They did serve us food. A meat stew that smelled heavenly! But of course, as Jews, we could not eat a stew made with pork. With their fiendish sense of humor, they had put in large chunks of pork to teach us to eat what "normal" people eat.

This is just a small example of the Nazis' hatred and cruelty toward Jews. My brother and sister and I were fortunate to escape on a Kindertransport to Sweden. My parents were also miraculously saved by illegally crossing the Italian border, though they endured great hardship during the war years. Most of the people, however, who were herded into that synagogue together with us on Krystall Nacht, perished in the Holocaust.

I think this is the reason why I stopped doing what I really love to do, which is designing beautiful jewelry and Judaica. Instead, my Belgian-born daughter-in-law, Nadia, and I founded the organization Women for Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green). Sadly, most of Nadia's family in Belgium was also killed in the Holocaust.

Both Nadia and I were intent from the very beginning to fight those cursed Oslo Accords with all our strength. Nadia, of course, was not born at the time of Krystall Nacht. But, she can well imagine the sound of breaking glass which her family heard before they were transported to the Nazi death camps.

In my opinion, this Road Map will surely lead us down the road to another Holocaust, unless we are able to stop the evil designs of our enemies.

THE ROAD TO PERDITION, Is Israel being sold out?

David Weinberg, Director of Public Affairs, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University, and Elyakim Haetzni, attorney and former Member of Knesset are going to give us their insights about this important subject.

(A recording of this entire program, including the interviews, is available on http://www.israelnationalnews.com Click on "On Demand Audio" on the blue bar.)

We cannot afford to sit around and say: "Well, what can we do about it?"

German Jews asked themselves the same question while the Nazis were coming to power, and then they couldn't even ask the question, because they were being shot, gassed and strangled.

Dissemination of Jew-hate is a prelude to suicide terror just as certainly as making the bomb is the prelude to detonating it.

After meeting with the members of the Quartet to discuss the so-called Road Map a week ago, US President George W. Bush said, "I view the Road Map as a part of the vision that I described, it is a way forward."

A way forward? President Bush should realize that the "Quartet" plan is a stacked deck against Israel and the United States. A prescription for disaster that will have the effect of undermining both countries' security interests. Can President Bush be unaware that his policy is being fundamentally undermined — not least by a member of his own cabinet?

In Israel today, in America tomorrow.

The following quotation by the Philosopher Martin Niemoller is written at the entrance of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, and is very relevant today:

"In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me, and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."



=============================================
Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380

http://www.womeningreen.org

Wedding in Jerusalem

By Naomi Ragen
Last night I went to the wedding of my dear friends’ Nancy and Benny's daughter. I've known the bride and her family for many years. And Nancy and I discovered we were both born in the same hospital in Brooklyn a few days apart. The bride and her twin brother were tiny babies when I first met them.

And now that baby girl, Shira – meaning song- was getting married.

Her future husband was a Talmud student in a study program that combined full army service with religious studies in a yeshiva situated in the heart of Biblical Israel, Samaria (A place our enemies call “illegal settlements”) . It is a yeshiva very similar to Otniel, which less than a week ago was invaded by terrorists with machine guns and hand grenades who killed four students in cold blood, and injured nine more.

Here I was, surrounded by these boys – soldiers and bible students—over a hundred of them, all invited by the groom to the wedding. In my minds’ eye, I could see the dining room in Otniel filled with these faces, dressed in the white shirts that are Sabbath and wedding day finery according to the mores of these modest, religious people.

Security was very tight. We were not in a settlement, we where in the heart of downtown Jerusalem. And Palestinians, who so far haven’t been persuaded by the Israeli left to kill just Israelis over the mythical green line, consider all of us in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Netanya, Haifa, Kfar Saba, Afula, Beit Shean, etc. etc. fair game for slaughter anytime, anyplace. Bible study, wedding, Bar Mitzvah, Passover Seder, Yom Kippur, sabbath meal. While the Western world has great delicacy when it comes to fighting terror “during the Holy month of Ramadan” Muslims themselves have no such sensitivity in halting their murderous activities during Ramadan, or any other day or occasion holy to other religions.

So here we were at a wedding, surrounded by armed guards. There was a pick up truck from the security company parked at the entrance, with a guard standing up in the open back with a machine gun. And there were metal barriers, and armed guards at all the entrances, with metal detectors, who checked our bags and coats and gifts, and back packs, then smiled and waved us through. And none of us wedding guests thought there was anything unusual about it. In fact, we were grateful.

And as the groom walked towards the seated bride, to perform the traditional “bedecking”, in which he takes the veil and covers her face (a custom which comes from the unfortunate experience of Patriarch Jacob who got Leah when he wanted Rachel, so now Jewish grooms make sure it’s the girl they had in mind before she puts on the veil…) the room filled with the roar of joyous song and the rhythm of hundreds of clapping hands. The music of flutes filled the air. We all then went outside in the cold Jerusalem night, another custom, to hold the wedding canopy under the stars.

There, again, the guards again kept watch from all sides. A guest, a massive fellow in a grey and red mustache, held a cherubic blonde two year old on his shoulders so the child could see. Grandfather and grandson, I thought, missing my own grandchildren. And I realized how much life is made up of such small, meaningful things. Sitting on your grandfather’s shoulders watching a wedding in Jerusalem. Holding a grandchild by his little legs. And when the blessings were made, the wine drunk, and the sound of rejoicing filled the night air, I thought: They can force us to hire armed guards for our weddings. They can force us to attend the funerals of young men and women, our sons and daughters, but they can’t stop can’t stop us from getting married, and starting new families, and singing and dancing, and filling Jerusalem’s night air with blessings.

They cannot.

But I wondered, how it must be for these boys, after burying their friends, after suffering such a clear example of what they all are facing in their own community and yeshiva, to now be celebrating. Were they totally able to free themselves from the terror, the mourning, the sorrow, to let their hearts rejoice for their friend at his wedding? Was such a thing possible, or even desirable?

Later, I got my answer.

It was something I’d never seen before at a wedding. Half the boys suddenly sat down on the floor. The rest, including all the men at the wedding, all the Rabbis, all the grandfathers, made a circle and walked around the room and the seated boys, hands on each other’s shoulders. In the very center sat the groom, who led the singing.

The music, unlike most traditional wedding songs, was slow. The movement around the room, slow. I strained to make out the words, and finally I did. They were the words of the traditional blessing from Grace after Meals, words we Jews say three times or more a day:

“Have compassion, O God, upon Israel Your people, upon Jerusalem, Your City, upon Zion, the Abode of Your glory, upon the kingdom of the House of David. O, our Father”—the men sang , and we women formed our own separate circle, shoulder to shoulder, united physically, and with one voice, we sang:” tend us, feed us, sustain us, nourish us, relieve us, and speedily grant us relief, O God, our God, from all our troubles.”

As I looked at the groom and his friends, as I saw the bride and hers, all singing these words, I understood that our enemies are never going to defeat us. Never. Because a people that can bury its dead, and rejoice in its living, and who can move forward into the future without forgetting either is a people that cannot be defeated by bullets or bombs or hatred or evil. It is a people who lives to give light to the world, and that light, despite the efforts of our enemies and those who support them—shines on.

While the world celebrated the beginning of a New Year with noisy blasts of fireworks and confetti, here in Jerusalem we quietly, meaningfully, celebrated the beginning of a new Jewish family. We did it with love, and faith, and trust in the future, asking God for his compassion and His blessing for His people. May He grant it to the young couple, to us, and to all who understand and rejoice in the difference between Israel and her enemies.

Sent by Naomi Ragen
http://www.naomiragen.com

Arafat Takes On bin Laden

By Joseph Farah


Well, if we're to believe what we heard last week, Yasser Arafat is angry at Osama bin Laden. Arafat says he doesn't want the al-Qaida terrorist hiding behind "the Palestinian cause."

He denounced the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, and explained how his struggle against Israel is different than the one being waged by bin Laden against the West. It was all very persuasive ­ if you didn't know a thing about Arafat's history.

· For years, Arafat has attended meetings with terrorists from all over the world ­ including bin Laden.

· He has used his Palestinian Authority subsidized by taxpayer dollars from the United States, to whip up hatred among his people for not only Israelis, but for all Jews and for all Americans. (Just recall the celebrations in the streets of Ramallah and Gaza as the World Trade Center collapsed.)

· Arafat is a professional liar and con man (aside from being a bloody murderer).

· Arafat has forged unholy alliances with many Islamist terror groups and individuals throughout his career while proclaiming to be at war with those forces.

To understand what I am telling you, you have to have some knowledge of Marxist principles ­ particularly the Hegelian dialectic. An idea or event generates its opposite, leading to a reconciliation of opposites, or a synthesis. That is how progress is achieved ­ through conflict, whether it's real conflict or phony conflict, manufactured by two or more conspirators.

When you see a schism develop between Arafat and some other terrorist group ­ be ot Hamas or Hizbollah or al-Qaida ­ understand what is at work. There is no schism. It's not real. They are play-acting. They are reading off the same page. It's the dialectic at work. The fix is in.

Arafat received training in these principles not only in the old Soviet Union, but from his friends in Vietnam, his friends in China, his friends in the hideously repressive Stalinist regime of Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu and others. He may not be a Marxist, but he has learned the lessons that made the discredited ideology a force in the world.

Arafat is playing a shrewd game - shrewd enough to have fooled top diplomats in the United States and leaders in Israel for the last 10 years or more. Whenever he's on the ropes, whenever he is about to lose power, because he has gone too far on his bloody terrorist campaign, whenever he is about to relegated to the ash heap, he resurrects himself and reinvents himself as a peacemaker and moderate in the Arab world. That is what he is attempting to do, once again, by distancing himself from bin Laden. He sees the handwriting on the wall.

One of his best friends in the Arab world, Saddam Hussein ­ also one of bin Laden's steadiest supporters, is about to become pita toast. He doesn't want to join Hussein in exile,in hiding or in hell. He knows the U.S. is amassing a military force in the Middle East that is capable of overrunning the entire region - if that was a desire of U.S.policy. He knows the map of the region is about to be redrawn. Iraq could be as pacified and as liberated as Afghanistan within 90 days. Where will that leave Arafat?

If Arafat is as supportive of Hussein and Iraq as he was in the first Persian Gulf War, it would leave him irrelevant. He made that mistake once. He won't make it a second time.

Let's remember that it was Arafat who came before bin Laden. There would be no bin Laden without Arafat. Arafat is the godfather of Arab terrorism. He invented it. It was under his orders that the first commercial airliners were hijacked. It was under his orders that U.S. diplomats and other civilians were murdered. It was under his orders that Olympic athletes were killed. It was under his orders that hundreds of innocent Americans and thousands of innocent Israelis have perished.

There is no difference between bin Laden and Arafat. Let me repeat that for emphasis: There is no difference between bin Laden and Arafat.

Arafat led the way, set the example and benefited from his 40-year campaign of terrorism. Bin Laden just took it a step further. He executed it with more precision, more daring, and higher death tolls. But he still learned from Arafat ­ and they both serve the same master.

Why doesn't Israel have a constitution?

Read this illuminating article by JIA's Chuck Chriss. And if your heart tells you to, please contribute to JIA's support on that site, too.

THE BUSH PLAN:

From Naomi Ragen:

On June 24, 2002, President Bush set forth the conditions that the Palestinian Arabs must fulfill in order to merit U.S. support for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state. Among the major obligations are that the Palestinian Arabs must

1. "dismantle the terrorist infrastructure,"
2. "end incitement,"
3. "elect new leaders not compromised by terror," and
4. unequivocally embrace democracy and free-market economics.

This report analyzes Palestinian Arab actions during Dec. 17 - Dec. 23, 2002, the 26th week following President Bush's speech. .......

1. "Dismantle the Terrorist Infrastructure"

What They Must Do: President Bush said that the Palestinian Arabs must "engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure." Those terms were previously defined in the Oslo and Wye accords as including arresting and imprisoning terrorists; shutting down bomb factories; seizing terrorists' weapons; extraditing terrorists to Israel; punishing factions of the PLO that engage in terrorism; and outlawing terrorist groups.

The Bush administration has also said that in rebuilding its police and security forces, the PA must reform them so that they fight against terrorists instead of taking part in terrorism.

The training, under the supervision of U.S., Egyptian, and Jordanian security officials, began on September 19, 2002; however, Israel has protested the fact that at least 100 of the 150 PA security officers participating in the course "were involved in attacks on Israeli civilians." (Middle East Newsline, September 17, 2002)

What They Did During Week #26:

A. No Terrorists Arrested: There were no reports of terrorists being arrested or imprisoned.

B. No Terrorists Extradited: The PA continued to ignore Israel's 45 requests for the extradition of terrorists.

C. No Terror Groups Outlawed: The PA did not outlaw Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, or any other terrorist groups.

D. No Terrorists' Weapons Seized: There were no reports of the PA seizing terrorists' weapons. By contrast, in Rafiah on December 22, Israeli forces discovered ready-to-detonate bombs in a private house, and an entrance to a tunnel to Egypt that was used for smuggling weapons to the PA.

E. No Closing of Bomb Factories: There were no reports of the PA shutting down any bomb factories.

F. No Punishing of PLO Terror Factions: There were no reports of the PLO leadership punishing PLO factions that are engaged in terrorism, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).

G. New Terrorist Attacks: Throughout Week #26, Israeli forces were engaged in "Operation Determined Stand," resulting in a sharp decrease in terrorist attacks. Nevertheless, during Dec.17-Dec.23, 2002, there were at least 17 terrorist attacks or attempted attacks, in which 1 person was murdered and 5 wounded:

December 17:
* A terrorist with an explosives belt was intercepted while trying to attack the Israeli Army's "Tarmit" outpost near the Egyptian border

* Shooting attack near the Egyptian border; two senior officials of the Defense Ministry's Construction Department were wounded

* Shooting attacks on Israeli soldiers near the Egyptian border

* A bomb discovered in Hebron

* Shooting attack on Israeli motorists near Netzarim

Attack on Israeli Army vehicles in the Central Region.

December 18:
* Firebomb attack on Israeli soldiers in Shechem (Nablus); two wounded

* Shooting attack on an Israeli motorist near Morag

* Bombs found near Morag

* Shooting attack on Israeli soldiers in Rafiah.

December 19:
* Bomb discovered in the Morag greenhouse.

December 20:
* Shooting attack on Israeli motorists near Netzar Hazani; the town's rabbi was killed.

December 21:
* Grenade attack on Israeli soldiers near Morag; one wounded

* Shooting attack on a German diplomat in Jenin.

December 22:
* Two Hamas terrorists intercepted near Jenin on their way to carry out an attack

* Shooting attack on Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

December 23: * Shooting attack on Israeli soldiers in Rafiah. ...........

2. "End Incitement"

What They Must Do: President Bush stated that the Palestinian Arabs must "end incitement to violence in official media, and publicly denounce homicide bombings."

What They Did During Week #26: The PA's official newspapers, television, and radio continued to broadcast a steady stream of anti-Israel, anti-American, and pro-violence incitement, and PA officials continued to make inciting statements.

For example, at a PA-sponsored ceremony in Gaza on December 18, titled "Palestine and Iraq in the Same Trench," 25 families of Palestinian Arab "martyrs" received grants from Saddam Hussein totaling $280,000.

Sketches of Arafat and Saddam Hussein appeared together on a poster beside the Iraqi and PA flags. During the ceremony, support was expressed for Iraq in its coming battle with the United States and one of the speakers, the poet Omar Halil Omar, "praised the role of Iraq and the Commander Saddam Hussein, and stressed that Iraq's land will be a graveyard for the American soldiers," according to the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al- Jadida, Dec. 19, 2002, as quoted by Palestinian Media Watch. .........

3. "Elect New Leaders Not Compromised by Terror"

What They Must Do: President Bush stated that the Palestinian Arabs must hold "fair multiparty elections by the end of the year, with national elections to follow," in which they "elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror."

What They Did During Week #26: The PA has announced that it will hold elections for chairman of the PA and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council on January 20, 2003, IF Israel withdraws from various parts of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. (New York Times, June 27, 2002)

It remains to be seen whether those elections, if held, will be free and fair, as President Bush has urged, or will be marred by ballot-stuffing and intimidation of voters and potential non-PLO candidates, as were the last PA elections, in 1996. .......

4. "Build Democracy Based on Tolerance and Liberty"

What They Must Do: President Bush said that the Palestinian Arabs must "build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty," with "a new constitution" and "a truly independent judiciary. He said they must "confront corruption," and "the Palestinian parliament should have the full authority of a legislative body." They must implement "market economics," and create "a vibrant economy where honest enterprise is encouraged by honest government."

In addition, there must be "an externally supervised effort to rebuild and reform the Palestinian security services" with "clear lines of authority and accountability and a unified chain of command."

What They Did During Week #26:

* The PA continues to claim that it is in the process of implementing what it describes as its "reform plan," but experts doubt that the reforms will be genuine. Robert Satloff of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said of the plan: "While it offers promising elements of change, the plan is only likely to strengthen the unacceptable status quo." (Middle East Newsline, July 9, 2002)

* On October 29, 2002, Arafat announced the appointment of a new cabinet; however, 16 of the 19 cabinet members had likewise been members of the outgoing cabinet. (New York Times, October 30, 2002)

* Furthermore, on October 29, 2002, the PA announced it had condemned to death an Arab human-rights worker (Heidar Mahmoud Hussein Ghanim, an employee of the leftwing Israeli group B'tselem) for "spying for Israel." ..................

Sent by Naomi Ragen
http://www.naomiragen.com

Will Warren on 9/11: Malignity

From Unremitting Verse

On that day we awoke to malignity,
The ferocious intent to do us harm,
That day of rage and sorrow, of smoke and alarm,
Of souls lost in the fires of iniquity.
We felt the familiar world distort,
As when one sees his pathology report:

Examination reveals a profusion
of poorly differentiated cells
that compose an abnormal mass, which swells
against nearby structures. Intrusion
into adjacent structures is found;
the margin of the mass shows infiltration
of the surrounding tissues. Aberration
of function is pronounced. Necrosis around
the primary site and other nearby
tissues is seen. Evidence of metastatic
spread to distant locations is emphatic.
Indicated aggressiveness is high,
as the cells’ primitive form is apparent.
Diagnosis: neoplasm, malignant.

Yet what we have is not a cancer that kills
By insensate grasp, but one that thrills
In its spread, that rejoices in its sign:
Not malignancy, but malignity.
Its hosts feed and water it like a treasured tree,
In love with malice, rapturous for the malign.

Why do they hate us so? some still ask.
Is this so hard? Don't psychology
And Occam’s razor agree with history?
Because they are haters. They love to bask
In falsehood's glow. They regard the others
As Others, not as ones who might be brothers.

On that day we awoke, and this we know:
The man of malice poses the greatest threat.
If his way be clear, our doom, and his, are met.
Our best will block his way, and each will go
As a surgeon, not exchanging eye for eye:
Excising malignity, dispatching the lie.

--Will Warren

WND: PALESTINE, AGAIN

By Joseph Farah

Despite two years of intense terrorism against Israeli civilians by the Palestinian Authority, Jerusalem is still willing to reward the violence and participate in the creation of yet another Arab police state in the Mideast - probably under the direction of the bloodthirsty, would-be tyrant and friend of Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat. Will they ever learn?

Worse yet, this capitulation by Sharon comes under pressure from the United States, which claims to be fighting a war on terrorism.

Maybe it's time for a little review of history.

Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, the umbrella group under which many Arab terrorist groups united, was classified as a terrorist organization from its inception in 1964 until 1993. Magically, following the Oslo Accords, in which Arafat theoretically renounced terrorism, he and his group become non-terrorists. They got a full pardon, a clean slate, they were bestowed political "grace" - or unmerited favor. It was truly unmerited.

Arafat may have mumbled some magical words, but he did not stop his terrorist campaign.

In fact, a study conducted by my friend Rachel Ehrenfeld showed Arafat used the public relations coup of 1993 to launch a whole new career as a drug trafficker, arms smuggler, money launderer and counterfeiter to help amass a fortune estimated by the British National Criminal Intelligence Services nearly 10 years ago at $10 billion.

You might think a fortune like that would lead to moderation. But, Arafat has every incentive to maintain his terrorist and criminal escapades. After the first year of the 2-year-old uprising utilizing suicide bombings and other terrorist tactics against Israel, the Palestinian Authority's annual revenues from donations jumped 80 percent - from $555 million to more than $1 billion.

Not surprising Arafat has provided the inspiration and financial model for terrorist groups all over the world - including Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

Arafat's PA has survived and flourished since 1993 based on two sources of revenue, reports Ehrenfeld: "international donors such as the European Union, the Arab states and the United States; and " criminal enterprises.

Want to know how much of your taxpayer money goes to fund Arafat? You better sit down.

The U.S. has given $548.7 million in direct aid to the PA, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. But the total sum, according to Ehrenfeld's study, is actually $1.1 billion.

The European Union is even crazier than Washington. Altogether, in loans and aid, the EU has provided $2.52 billion to the PA.

Then there's the U.N., which provided $521.7 million just this year, about 30 percent of which came from the U.S.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Arafat has taken these "investments" from the West and put them to work in criminal enterprises to create new revenue streams.
" The PA oversees massive counterfeiting of CDs, DVDs, clothing, cosmetics and schoolbooks.
" The PA oversees the counterfeiting of Israeli, Jordanian and Kuwaiti currency.
" The PA shakes down ordinary citizens for tribute through kidnappings, extortion, even phony traffic violations.
" Stealing cars from Israel is rampant in PA territory, and the government runs the relicensing of those cars.

Then there's the drug-running, arms-smuggling, etc. It all adds hundreds of millions to the phantom PA budget.

Where does all this money go? Israeli government estimates say about $1.3 billion went directly into the pockets of Yasser Arafat.

So, not only is this man a murdering terrorist, he's a thief. Not only is he a liar, he's a con artist. Not only does he victimize Israelis, he victimizes his own people.

Yet, Israel continues to travel down this dead-end "road to peace." And the United States and Europe, unable to admit their mistakes, keep applying the pressure to continue this business-as-usual approach to Mideast policy.

It's time to call the PA what it is - a terrorist, criminal enterprise. It's time to cut off the donations. It's time to seize the assets. It's time to declare war on it as a terrorist entity. It's time to free the people under its grip like we're about to free the people of Iraq.


Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated column originates at WorldNetDaily,
where he serves as editor and chief executive officer.

=============================================
Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:michael@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org

News from Hebron

1. Attempted terror outside Kiryat Arba

This morning at about 11:30, terrorists opened fire on employees of the Kiryat Arba municipality, working at "Hill 29," opposite the Givat HaHarsina gas station. The shots were fired from an Arab house in the vicinity. No one was injured. A short time later, following arrival of Israeli security forces, two bombs were detected near the area where the men were working. When bomb squad experts arrived to dismantle the explosives, they discovered that the bombs were fake. The security forces broke into the house from which the shots were fired, but the terrorists had already escaped.

A Hebron spokesman issued the following statement: Five weeks ago Kiryat Arba suffered tragedy when three members of their emergency squad were killed by Arab terrorists and others were wounded, some critically. This morning four employees of the Kiryat Arba municipality were the targets of Arafat-terrorists. There is no doubt that the continued passivity displayed by the Israeli government and the Defense ministry, following the killing of 14 people in less than a month and a half is a clear signal to the terrorists: do what you want, shoot, wound, kill; don't worry, for whatever you do there is no price, no punishment, nothing to prevent you from spilling more Jewish blood. The fact that the terrorists are treated to eviction of Jews from their land, as happened here last Wednesday night, is icing on the cake. This is tantamount to incitement, again, the government's message to the terrorists: 'if we can do it, so can you.' When will the government wake up - the danger is not to Hebron or Kiryat Arba. The danger envelopes the entire state of Israel. No one is immune, be they in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Eilat or Kiryat Shemona. Ariel Sharon - speak the language Arafat and his terrorist thugs understand: Force and Land. Eliminate the terrorists and return Eretz Yisrael to the People of Israel. Only then will the terror come to an end.

2. Memorial Olive Trees

The Hebron Gift Shop posted the following letter:

The past month has not been easy in Hebron and Kiryat Arba. The murder of twelve men, including three Kiryat Arba residents, the Hebron commander, Col. Dror Weinberg, HY”D, and eight other officers and soldiers is a heavy blow to our communities.

Please accept our thanks for your strong support and moving letters during this difficult time.

We have decided on a special way to commemorate the memories of those killed. In preparation for the Tu b’Shvat “festival of trees,” we are planting olive trees in Kiryat Arba-Hebron. These area will be named “The Hebron Heroes’ Forest.

We would be honored to have you participate in planting trees in memory of our beloved.

You will find details at “The Hebron Internet Gift Shop” [ www.gifts.hebron.org.il ].

All participants will receive a beautiful certificate honoring the contribution and participation in this worthwhile project.

Naomi Ragen: An illuminating conversation

Dear Friends,

Forget the blah-blah of news commentaries. This true exchange between an Israeli man (who writes and speaks about the Holocaust) and an Israeli-Arab student at Hebrew University will make you understand what is happening in the world, and in Israel.

Every blessing,

Naomi Ragen


Conversation on the Beach


By Solly Ganor
Herzliya, Israel
Friday, December 6, 2002

About half a mile from where I live in Herzliya, on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean, stands an old mosque. It was built during the Middle Ages and a Moslem holy man is buried on that site. The holy man's name was Sidney Ally and that is how the mosque is known to this day. The beach bellow, stretches all the way to Herzliya to the South, and Netanya to the North.

I often go there for walks because from its heights one has a panoramic view of the sea and the whole area. There is another reason why I go there; from that hill, at certain weather conditions, the Mediterranean turns into a colour of blue that can not be seen anywhere else.

Last Friday, as the wind began blowing from the East, the Medi, as we call our sea, began calming down. It flattened the waves coming ashore until it became as placid as the Kinneret during the summer. It was then that the deep blue colour, as if by a magic wand, emerged from the depth of its waters. It wasn't the first time I saw it and I always witness that phenomenon with rising spirits. " If there is so much beauty in this world, then there is hope for us humans yet." I said to myself.

The silence was interrupted by a noisy bus full of Arab worshipers who arrived to the mosque for their Friday services. They wore the traditional Arab garb, and entered the mosque quietly. Some of them threw me hostile glances. Their arrival brought me back to our desperate conflict with these people for the piece of land we call Israel, and they call Palestine. Only a few years ago at Camp David, we deluded ourselves that they are finally ready for peace; Israel and Palestine living next to each other for the mutual benefit of both peoples. But that was not to be. They are still not ready to relinquish their old dream to oust us out of the Middle East.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" I heard a voice behind me speaking English. As I turned around I saw a well dressed young man of about twenty five, looking wistfully at the sea. By his accent and looks I realized that he was an Arab, probably one of the lot that arrived by bus. A quick visual scan of his body assured me that he didn't come to stab me, or blow himself up. I nodded. "Yes, it is beautiful." Well, we have at least one thing in common, I thought.

And then I had a second thought. "Here stands an Arab youth next to me, in the heart of Israel, calmly admiring with me the sea. There was not a shadow of a doubt in his mind that something bad would ever happen to him here in Israel. I tried to imagine myself standing that way in Ramalah, and having that conversation with an Arab youth. Then I remembered a scene filmed by an Italian TV correspondent in Ramalah last year.

Two Israelis, who by mistake took a wrong turn, found themselves among a mob of Palestinians. They were brought to the Palestinian police station where they were lynched and their mangled bodies were thrown out of the window, to the cheering crowds below. They kicked them and beat them until they were an unrecognizable mess of flesh." The Italian TV crew, who filmed that scene, had to run for their lives to escape the mob. Fortunately, they were able to sneak the film out and show it to the world, one of the few films that were ever shown of the Arab atrocities. But the world isn't interested in Arab atrocities. They are used to them and they don't make good news.

For a while we stood in silence admiring the view.

"Didn't you come with the others to pray?" I asked just to make conversation. I was curios about him. Why did he join me? It wasn't just to watch the view, of this I was sure. "I know what that old fool will say by heart. He is of the old school and preaches moderation. Fortunately, his time is over."

"You don't think that moderation is a good idea?"
"What has moderation ever done for us? We have been moderate long enough. We are growing weaker while you have grown stronger. It is time for us to act."

I was a little surprised by his belligerent tone right from the start. Usually Arabs are polite in the beginning of a conversation.

"Do you think that you were moderate up to now? Would you call five wars the Arabs launched against us, moderation? I wonder what you would call hostility?" He gave me a sober look.

"Hostility is what you are getting now. Our young people are blowing themselves up in all of your major towns, taking with them hundreds of your Israelis. President Arafat have promised you a million "Shahids" to march on Jerusalem. The march has already began, and it won't be thanks to Arafat. He is another old bungler. Things are changing. Until now you had the upper hand, but no more! Our "Shahids" are the answer to your atomic bombs. If necessary, one "Shahid" can be an atomic bomb, here in Israel, in America, in Europe, or anywhere the Jews and the Crusaders live. We don't need millions of dollars worth of sophisticated labs and expensive scientist. What we have is cheap and efficient. That is because we are not afraid to die. We have finally found your soft underbelly, your Achilles' Heel. You Judeo-Christians worship the sanctity of life, while we don't mind dying for Islam." The last sentence he said with certain pride in his voice.

From the way he expressed himself, I realized that he is a student. As if confirming my thoughts, he told me that he is a student of political science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. "Do all the Arab students studying at the Israeli universities share your views?"

"Absolutely! A few may be oriented towards the West, but the overwhelming majority are for the new emerging Renaissance of Islam."

Then he smiled and said, " You might as well enjoy the beautiful view from "Sidney Alley" while you can. You won't be able to do so for long. If I were you, I would pack and leave for safer countries." I gave him a long look.

"Thanks for the advice, but I remember another Arab who gave the same advice to us in 1948, when the British were pulling out. He may have been your grandfather, for all I know. He lived in a village somewhere around here and he was a friend of a Jewish man named Peytan whom I knew as well. Peytan lived in Kefar Shemaryahu across the road. One day the Arab neighbor came visiting Mr. Peytan and strongly advised him to pack and leave. At the same time, he brought out a measuring tape and began to measure the room they were sitting in.

'What are you doing?" asked my friend.

"Look, you are going to lose your house anyway. There is no way that six hundred thousand of you can stand up to the combined might of six Arab regular armies, not to mention our Palestinian battalions. We can actually kill you with our hats!" Yes, that is what he actually said: "We can kill you with our hats." We have been good friends for a long time. You might as well give me your house rather than to someone you don't know."

"His advice reminded me of your advice. Yet during the 1948 war, that was forced on us by you, your 'grandfather', not only didn't get the house in Kefar Shemaryahu, but he lost his own house and became a refugee. And now he is blaming it on the Jews. Fifty-five years later he still sits in the camp. His views haven't changed much. He still wants not only his house back, but he wants the house in Kefar Shemaryahu, of his Jewish friend as well. Will he ever get it? I doubt it."

"Yes, he will get it! And you know why? Because in 1948 they were all cowards! Today, our generation is proving that we are not! Eighteen determined men with carton cutters who were not afraid to die, defied the big American might, causing them thousands of dead and trillions of dollars worth of losses. We found out that we can bring the Western capitalist system to its knees, and we shall do so! It is a shameless selfish system that causes endless human misery around the world, especially in the third world countries and for Islam. It is time for it to go!" It was obvious from the way he said it that he didn't say it for the first time.

"Communism, Nazism, Fascism, they all were defeated by the Western Democracies, What system do you propose to replace it with?" I asked. I was beginning to get irritated with this young Arab.

"Islam!" He said fiercely.

"Islam?" I asked. "Islam? What did Islam ever do for the countries under its rule? It brought nothing but poverty and misery to the masses, while bestowing fabulous riches to the rulers. All you have to do is look around you. Israel, that was in 1948 a pauper state, barely able to feed its population, has grown into a modern self sufficient state. We have absorbed a million Jews from the Arab countries, who fled for their lives leaving all they possessed behind, while your Arab brothers with their billions of petro dollars let the Palestinians rot in refugee camps. While we progressed in the last fifty years, the Arab states have only regressed . As a matter of fact, the Arab masses are worse off than when they were under the British or the French rule. How many Nobel prize winners has Islam produced? How many new inventions to benefit mankind? Practically zero! How many Einsteins, Freuds, Salks and Rubinsteins has Islam produced? Zero! From a once vibrant Arab civilization, that gave us Algebra and the concept of the zero, Islam has plunged you into a pit of fanaticism, lliteracy, poverty and corruption, and you would like to force the world into the same abyss?"

For a while he looked at me perturbed. "We all make mistakes. But Islam with all its faults is a thousand times more preferable to the abomination that is the West." He finally said quietly. Then he gave me a fierce look and said: "If you had said in any Arab country about Islam, what you have just said to me, you would be a dead man!"

"I am sure I would. And if you had said in any Arab country denouncing their corrupt regimes the way you are denouncing Israel, you would be a dead man too. Yet, here you are, studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, allowing yourself openly to speak of subversion and treason against the State of Israel, without any fear of being arrested, let alone being killed for it. Doesn't it say something to you?"

" Yes, it says that you are weak, and that weakness will be your undoing." He said seriously.

"Isn't there a way our two nations could ever come to terms and make peace?" Again he gave me that serious look.
"Yes, there is a way. We are not like the Nazis who gave you no other choice but death. We give you the chance to convert to Islam, then you will become a part of us and our people will live in peace." For a while we stood in silence looking at the sea.

"You will never defeat us because we have a secret weapon, the same weapon that saved us from you in 1948."I said.

"Yes, and what is that, your atom bomb?" His tone was derisive."
No. In Hebrew it is known as 'Ein Breira'.
"Ein breira? That is your secret weapon? It means 'there is no other choice. Why, we too can say the same thing."
"But that is not quite true. We have 'no other choice' because you challenge our very existence in this country, whereas we don't do that. We are quite willing to coexist with you as a Palestinian state and an Israeli state, side by side. You don't."

There was nothing more to be said. The sun was dipping towards the horizon in the West, and the sea lost it's deep blue colour. The magic was gone. It was time to go home.

"Good bye. I have to go inside the mosque. I promised them a lecture." He said walking away. I could imagine what the lecture was all about. We didn't offer to shake hands. After all, you don't shake hands with your sworn enemy. I walked home depressed. If there was a way out of this conflict, I didn't see one.

DOES ARAB VIOLENCE PAY OFF?

Dear Friends,

I send you an important piece by the well known columnist Carl Alpert which explains why misguided peace movements in Israel are not just a harmless expression of delusional, unfounded optimism; to the Arabs, they are a sign of weakness and an encouragement to keep those bombs coming. Those Jews abroad who fund Peace Now, Rabbis for Human Rights, Yesh G'vul, Meretz, the Labor Party, Women in Black, etc. etc. are not forging ahead towards a peace settlement; they are encouraging the extremist elements now in control of the Palestinians, their dream of destroying the State of Israel and the ongoing violence against the Jewish people.

Please read and pass on.

Naomi


DOES ARAB VIOLENCE PAY OFF?

by Carl Alpert

Haifa - There is no lack of news, almost daily, on events in the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation, but certain fundamental aspects of that struggle have received little attention. It is time the spotlight should be turned on them.

Statements by Palestinian leaders, sermons in mosques, and articles and editorials repeated in their press all lead to expression of a general opinion that the Arabs are winning in the ongoing battle with Israel. The few Arab personalities who raise timorous voices, pointing to the resultant desperate economic situation of their people, and the overpowering strength of Israel, are at once hushed up by the prophets of victory, and even threatened with harm. The masses follow the lead of their war-mongers.

On what do they base their optimism? On two factors: on the visible physical results of their violence, and on what they regard as a spirit of defeatism which appears to them to be sweeping over Israel.

With regard to the first: Gideon Levi, a pro-Palestinian columnist in the daily paper Haaretz, has for some time been serving as a mouthpiece for their point of view. On the subject of the alleged success of the terrorism, he has noted that ever since the Yom Kippur War, almost 30 years ago, everything that the Arabs have gained has come about as a result of their use of force. They point to the Yom Kippur War itself, Egypt's surprise attack, which ended with the surrender of the entire Sinai, even the last of Israel's holdings, Yamit.

The first Intifada gained for them the Oslo agreement, the safe ensconcing of Arafat in the West Bank, the establishment and arming (by Israel) of the Palestine Authority, and the withdrawal of Israel from major West Bank cities and most of Gaza.

It was the repeated violence of the Hizbullah that brought about Israel's hasty withdrawal from Lebanon.

More recently, Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader, observed that the bloody and painful terrorist attack on a bus in Jerusalem was what motivated Amram Mitzna, head of the Labor Party, to declare thereafter that he is prepared to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip. In other words, it appears to them that everything they have gained, and Israel's capitulation, has always come about after intense terrorist violence. The obvious moral, therefore, is to continue with the violence until Israel is brought to its knees, and then eliminated entirely.

The second factor contributing to their optimism, and hence encouraging them in their determination to continue with the terror, is the reaction of certain elements in Israel and among liberal-minded Jews in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The peace movements in Israel, though they represent only a very small fraction of public opinion, are regarded by the Palestinians as an indication of a growing spirit of defeatism here. Jewish street demonstrations and public meetings attacking government policy are looked upon by most Israelis only as an expression of a naive and misguided group exercising their freedom in a democracy. But to the Arabs, who do not understand democracy, such actions are taken very seriously and are regarded as indications of a significant split in Israeli public opinion.

The Palestinians derive encouragement as a result. Jews in other parts of the world as well, who endorse the so-called peace movements here, are in effect bolstering the Palestinians in their determination to increase their apparently successful terrorism. After all, they feel that they have help from unwitting collaborators within the Israeli ranks.

Further, the publicity given to the relatively few Israelis who have refused to serve in the army in the West Bank adds substantially to the belief that Israeli morale is disintegrating. Unwittingly, the idealistic but short-sighted Jewish humanitarians, are playing into the hands of Israel's foes, and are in large part responsible for continuation and extension of the terror.

The Arabs also compare the reaction at funerals of the victims on both sides, as shown here on television. Arab funerals are marked by excited fury, fist-waving and incitement. Jewish funerals are distinguished by the tears and subdued grief of the mourners. This, too, is regarded as a sign of growing Israeli weakness and imminent collapse, in contrast to Arab fervor and determination.

But after all this is said, it must be noted that the vast majority of Israelis remain confident and determined. They would prefer to reach a peaceful agreement with the Palestinians, but if the latter persist in resorting to violence, Israel has no alternative but to respond with force. A change may come when a new, sane, responsible leadership emerges on the other side, prepared to teach their people that good neighborliness is preferable to hostility. When that time comes, Israel will not be found wanting.

x x x

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Naomi Ragen
Please visit my Web page at: http://www.NaomiRagen.com
and subscribe to my mailing list by sending an empty email to: naomiragen-on@mail-list.com
email:Naomi@NaomiRagen.com

Jane, Yasir, Shoshana, and Mitzna

By Naomi Ragen

I was invited to attend a V-Day tribute to the doctors and nurses of Hadassah Hospital. I had no idea what V-Day meant, and found out it had to do with the feminism of the Vagina Monologues, an off-Broadway play written by Eve Ensler. The delegates, including the playwright, and Jane Fonda, had been touring the area, with a stop in Jordan to speak to women there about violence against women. I actually have an acquantaince in Jordan, Princess Wdjan Ali, a wonderful woman who is battling for an end to honor killings.

One of the highlights of the evening at Hadassah was a presentation by Shoshana Gottleib, a young, religious mother of four, who told the audience how the van she was in was attacked by murderous machine-gun fire by terrorists, and how bending down to put orange peels in a plastic bag, she avoided the bullet that went through her headrest. As it was, Shoshana was critically injured, her spinal cord severed, paralyzing her for life from the chest down. One of the most interesting parts of Shoshana's presentation was her revelation that the terrorists who opened fire on her were three policemen in Arafat's Palestinian Authority, a fourth, who was Arafat's personal bodyguard in Force 17, and a fifth who had been recruited with the promise of $500. One of the terrorists videotaped the attack on the van, and it was sent to Yasir Arafat.

While Fonda stood with the rest of us to give Shoshana Gottlieb a standing ovation for her narrative of courage and survival, and she sounded quite sincere when she called the doctors, nurses and victims treated at Hadassah Hospital -- which is open to all and treats Arabs and Jews with total equality--real heroes,(we even had a brief pleasant chat about playwrighting and women's rights afterwards) I was surprised by some information that I heard later. First, as I paused to chat with Shoshana Gottlieb and her wonderful husband in the parking lot, she told me Ms. Fonda was planning to visit Yasir Arafat in Rammallah the following day. " She asked me if I had something I wanted to say to him," Shoshana told me. " I told her, I want the video tape."

Later, I understood that Ms. Fonda met with with Fatima al-Kasba, 37, who lost two teenage sons in the conflict, although we never did learn how. And I think it makes a difference if they died strapping on suicide belts, or as innocent bystanders....don't you?

Nevertheless, I give Ms. Fonda credit for coming to this area and for trying to understand the conflict,and for not coming out with inflammatory one sided statements, although she should not have been demonstrating with Women in Black, the women's group that pressured for the Oslo Accords, and in so doing put so many other mothers into the black of mourning.

While Ms. Fonda I think means well, I don't think the same can be said of Labor and Meretz representatives, including the personal adviser of Labor chair Amram Mitzna, who met last week in London with representatives of the Palestinian Authority. Yes, believe it or not, they are still meeting with Arafat.

The meetings took place under the auspices of the Peres Center for Peace (whose main accomplishments so far has been giving each other enormous salaries and sponsoring unsuccessful soccer tournaments between Arabs and Jews). Mitzna's aide, along with those of Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Haim Ramon, Matan Vilnai, Zahava Gal-On and Roman Bronfman, met with a Palestinian delegation that included Mahmoud Yaseen, who is in charge of protocol in Arafat's office (Hmm. I wonder if he's the one to ask for Shoshana Gottleib's videotape?), and the assistants of Information Minister Yasser Abd Rabbo, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), Nabil Shaath, Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) and others.

"These meetings, designed to renew the dialogue between the parties, were planned a long time ago and did not take place until now for various reasons," explained the director of the Peres Center for Peace, Ron Pundak. (Ron was the main writer of the Oslo Accords. I once heard him say with a gleeful smile that he had put in so many clauses it would impossible for Israel to ever reverse the process)."It was made clear in the meetings that the real differences between the sides are not related to substance but rather to a lack of trust because of the conflict in the last two years," Pundak noted.

Not related to substance, huh? I'd say that video tape of the deliberate attack on Shoshana Gottlieb that paralyzed her for life and the $500 bucks Yasir promised the people who did it was substantive, even if the cowards, morons and brain-dead of the Labor Party and Meretz can't figure it out.

"Both sides have expressed the will to reach peace and live in mutual respect and recognition, and to end the occupation and the terror, the Israeli participants said."

Where have we heard that before? Oh, was it 700 Israeli dead ago? Ten thousand Israeli injured ago? Hadassah treated 2,100 victims of terror last year alone. " This is the only way to promise both nations a future of good neighborly relations, peace and security within safe borders based on international recognition and other initiatives, such as the Arab peace initiative and the speech made by President Bush last June, the parties said. Blah, blah. You get it. If you elect Labor or Meretz, get ready for Oslo II, and the next round of dead and injured. The next two thousand mothers paralyzed for life for $500 (He never got the money, he said.)

"Both sides aren't hearing each other's narratives, and maybe that's our role as artists." Jane Fonda said of the meetings with Israeli and Palestinian women. I for one, Jane, am listening. And what I hear, for the most part, is baloney.

I thank Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA for information on the meeting in Europe sent through his mailing list.
=======================================
Naomi Ragen
Please visit my Web page at: http://www.NaomiRagen.com
and subscribe to my mailing list by sending an empty email to: naomiragen-on@mail-list.com
email:Naomi@NaomiRagen.com

Oriana: I stand with Israel; I stand with the Jews

God bless her and FrontPage magazine.com!

Daniel Gordis: Dispatches from an Anxious State

In New York last week, I had occasion to be interviewed on NPR. It still amazes me how many people listen to talk radio, and of those, how many find the time to search the web in order to write email comments on what they've heard. I was pretty flooded with responses to the interview (www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/11182002), and rather struck by one particular theme that appeared in many of the letters. The following is typical -- I use it as the example because it was somewhat less inflammatory than many of the others:

"Listening to you on the Leonard Lopate show, I couldn't but be amazed at your disregard for the lives of your children. When the neighborhood we were living in deteriorated to the point that it was no longer safe to walk the streets we moved. We could have stayed, worked with the neighborhood association, joined the block watchers, etc, but in the meanwhile we had images of our children coming home from school mugged, bloodied, or even killed. It wasn't worth it to be heroes. . . . How will you feel if one of those suicide bombers kills your child when you could have avoided it by moving back to the States? Israel does not need you, it has many, many people who will fight the good fight, and in any event the problems are caused by forces beyond your control. Doesn't your family come first? Richard"

Well, Richard, I didn't answer that e-mail until today, because I didn't really know where to begin. But today was the kind of day in Israel that clarifies everything -- why we're here, why this isn't anything like the neighborhood that you left, and why we're not killing our children, but giving them something to live for.

We were at a Bar Mitzvah at the Kotel (The Western Wall) this morning. After the service was over, I grabbed a cab to head back to the office for a meeting. The news was prattling about something that "even we were unprepared for."

Uh-oh. That was the first I'd heard about the attack in Mombassa. Details were sketchy, and the only way the news could get any information was to speak on cell phones to Israelis who were actually at the site. One woman, just shy of hysterical, told the story of the explosion, and recounted how it took just under two hours for the first Kenyan ambulances to arrive. (Tonight, Israelis still can't believe that. We get to these disaster sites in two to three minutes, though admittedly, we have a lot more practice.) When asked what she expected would happen next, she said, "I assume Israel will send doctors, medicine and soldiers, and then they'll bring us home." And she was right. The news immediately cut to an airfield, where five IAF planes were being loaded with the medical equipment and personnel that the Kenyans couldn't seem to amass, and shortly thereafter, the planes and their cargoes were on their way.

You see, Richard, this isn't some dumpy neighborhood somewhere in the States that makes no difference to anyone but those who can't get out of it. This is what we call home. Muslim extremist evil knows no borders. We've known that for a long time. Remember Munich? Remember New York? Muslim terrorism isn't about the settlements, or the "occupation" (which may or may not be a bad idea, depending on who you ask, but certainly isn't the root cause of all this terrorism), but about Israel herself and about Israelis and Jews wherever they may be. (Truthfully, it's about Western Civilization, which the Jews for some reason are seen to represent.) And when Jews end up butchered in Mombassa, they know one thing. Kenyan incompetence will not allow them to be stranded.

We'll get there. And we'll bring whatever's left of them home.

And then we heard about the two shoulder-mounted missiles fired at the Arkia jet carrying 271 people, and how they missed. And on tonight's news, even CNN showed a home video one of the passengers had taken as the plane prepared to land. Outside the window, IAF F-16's were flanking the jet, making sure that it hadn't been damaged and was safe to land. They were so close that from the cabin window, the passenger was able to film the pilot and navigator relatively clearly. And as the plane landed, the video caught the clapping and spontaneous singing of "Heveinu Shalom Aleichem" -- a kitchy old Israeli homecoming song that no one on that plane had sung for decades. But no matter. There was no reason to be embarrassed by the kitch. Six decades ago, when people fired at Jews across the world, there was no one willing to do anything.

The F-16's outside the window showed our children, Richard, that we're not disregarding them or their safety -- we've brought them to the only place on the planet where Jews can take care of themselves.

Of course, we're not always successful, Richard. You're right. Sometimes, they get us. In the past two years, there have been 14,500 terrorist attacks in Israel. No exaggeration. What's amazing is that relatively few have killed people. Still, when two terrorists shot up a Likud Party headquarters this afternoon killing six people (so far), it was the culmination (though the day's not over, so one hesitates to use that word definitively) of a rather horrible day. But no one's running away. The Likud party primary didn't get cancelled or delayed. The polls stayed open. The countries these terrorists "represent" don't have a single democracy to their credit (save Turkey, if you call that military-in-the-shadows-government-sham a democracy), but we do. They blow up a hotel, try to shoot down a jet, shoot up a bus station and we still vote. Quietly, peacefully, democratically. And in the midst of all the sadness and grief, many of us are proud of that. I think we have a right to be.

You weren't proud of that neighborhood you left. Probably because it didn't stand for anything too important. Because it reeked hopelessness. So you left, and rightly so. But this place does stand for something important. And even on dark days like today, in which everyone I know was sullen, recovering from one bit of news only to hear another, this place pulses with hope. Those doctors flying to Mombassa are what this place is all about. The F-16's shadowing the 757 making its way home are what this place is all about. And the quiet, orderly voting is what this place is all about. What kind of a person in their right mind would leave this, Richard? This isn't a neighborhood. It's home. And with all its faults, and there are many, it's a dream come true. Walk away from that? How would we get out of bed in the morning and look in the mirror?

The chit-chat over dinner tonight was fascinating. Micha, our youngest and nine years old, was trying to understand the difference between Sharon and Netanyahu. Apparently, today's Likud primary had been much discussed in his fourth grade class. His older siblings were trying to explain. When they told him that Sharon has said that he's willing, in principle, to see a Palestinian state, Micha asked incredulously, "given them LAND?" To which his brother and sister explained that "they" need someplace to live, too, which is why Sharon says that. But then, they continued, "the Arabs probably won't stop killing us for a long time, which is why maybe Netanyahu's right." Elisheva and I didn't say much, and just listened to this rather lengthy discussion.

They had most of it right, some of it wrong. But guess what, Richard? They were talking about the future, a future they believe in. In just a couple of years, our daughter will get to vote, too. (That, of course, would not be the case if she lived in the Palestinian Authority. Or Lebanon. Or Syria. Or Jordan. Or Saudi Arabia. Or Egypt.) And she'll vote about stuff that really matters. The direction her country takes will be her choice, too. You're right that we can't completely stop the terrorism, and you're right that there's some danger here. But here's what our kids have learned: Life isn't about staying alive. It's about believing in something that matters while you're alive. And at the dinner table tonight, watching our kids think out loud about how much you should trust people who've been doing this to you for two years, but what you'll have if you're not willing to risk anything, I realized that it works. They actually still believe in the future. There wasn't a grain of hopelessness in their conversation. I bet that wasn't true when people talked about your old neighborhood, was it? And that's what makes all the difference.

Yes, Richard, our family does come first. And that's why we're here. To raise our kids in a place that's all about them, about their history, their future, their sense of being at home. To live in a place that unlike that old neighborhood, matters very much. Not because we're heroes, for we're not. But because we know just a bit about Jewish history; and because we have no right to expect other Israelis to "fight the good fight" if we're not willing to.

On the news this afternoon, they interviewed some alleged aviation expert about the attempted attack on the Arkia 757. He explained how these missiles work, and gave a whole dissertation on the ease of operation of heat-seeking shoulder-launched missiles. When he was done, the interviewer asked him, "Then how did they miss? After all, a lumbering 757, barely off the ground? How do you explain this?"

His answer, I thought, was telling. He said, "I can't explain it. Either they fired without priming the heat-seeking element on the missiles, or they were faulty. But normally, there's no way to miss. It was a miracle."

He didn't mean anything theological by the comment, of course, but today's the day before Hanukkah. In your old neighborhood, and in your new one, too, it's Thanksgiving. I remember it well. College football during the day. Beer and pretzels, and chatting with friends. Turkey and stuffing at night. Not bad at all.

None of that here. Just a regular old dinner. But not so tomorrow night. Tomorrow night, when you look outside our living room window, in the windows of virtually every other apartment within sight, there are going to be Hanukkah candles flickering. Religious families, secular families. Left wing families, right wing families. Native families and immigrant families. American families and French families. Young families and old families. Sharon families and Netanyahu families. They'll all have candles in the window.

Because Richard, somehow, in spite of everything, we still believe in miracles. Some of them happened a long time ago. But others are still happening. We understand them in different ways, and we disagree passionately about how to keep them going. But after a day like today, somehow we find ourselves still believing in them.

It's a crazy, dangerous place, this neighborhood of ours, Richard. But it's home. And it's a miracle. It really is. And from that, you see, you just don't walk away.

Now do you get it?

Happy Hanukkah.

(c) 2002 Daniel Gordis The first four years of these dispatches, along with other brief essays on life in Israel, have now been published by Crown Publishers as "IF A PLACE CAN MAKE YOU CRY: DISPATCHES FROM AN ANXIOUS STATE."

For more information, see http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=1400046130.

The Amazon link is http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400046130

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